Seeking healing: No easy way back from Civil War
“I don’t like rebels.”
Those were the comments of a Union veteran in Scott County when he was given a special census questionnaire in 1890 — a full 25 years after Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox — as related by historian Michael O’Neal.
Several of Scott County’s Confederate sympathizers had been driven away during the war. And while many of them were welcomed back into the community after the war — as evidenced by men like Francis Marion Chambers, who served in the Confederate army and returned to serve as postmaster at Bowl, and James Granville Stephens, who served with Gen. Lee at Antietam and Harper’s Ferry, then returned to serve as district attorney general — those comments on the 1890 questionnaire, some quarter of a century after the fact, revealed that scars from the war lingered for many years to come.
Well before 1890, but after the war had ended, the murder of a Confederate soldier who was passing through Scott County offered more proof to the lingering anti-secession sentiment that had enveloped the community.
As related by Ollie Lay in Paul Roy’s 2001 book, “Scott County in the Civil War,” two Confederate soldiers who had been prisoners of war were paroled after the war ended, and were walking home to LaFollette, Tenn. along the Jacksboro to Monticello Road that ran through Scott County. At Rock House, the Rebels encountered trouble.
“The war just being ended, the fighting spirit was still high,” Lay wrote. “They arrested them and marched them along the road for about a mile, to where a large branch of water poured over a cliff, when suddenly one broke away swinging himself down the ravine. They then shot and killed the other one. When the neighbors heard the news, the people of Rock House community (mostly the women folks for lots of the men were still away from home) prepared a grave beside the road where he was killed and buried him.”
Lay identified the killers as Lewis Nolan and Andy Thompson, and perhaps one more.
Dr. Elery Lay, a native Scott Countian who became a well-known educator in Kingsport, Tenn. before his death in 1991, also wrote of the incident in two of his novels and a newspaper article.
Lay told it like this in the Scott County News: One of the soldiers “shucked” his heavy boots and managed to outrun his pursuers. The other man was subsequently tortured by his captors.
“Scott County was no place for a ‘rebel’ in those years,” Lay wrote. “Families showing any sympathy for the Southern cause, were harried out of the county at the very onset of the war … Feelings had become hatreds by the time the war came to its end; so that no ‘rebel’ was safe in the area, even if he were merely passing through on his way home.”
Lay wrote that after being tortured, the Confederate soldier was shot and killed, his body plunging over the waterfall.
The versions offered by Ollie Lay and Elery Lay are quite consistent, including the details of the waterfall, the fact that the escaped soldier’s discarded boots remained in the woods for a long time after, and that Mary Lay was the woman who led the effort to bury the dead man.
Of course, their stories should have been consistent; Ollie Lay was Elery Lay’s sister-in-law. Her husband, Evan Lay, and Elery Lay were the sons of Calvin Ozias Lay, and the grandsons of Moses Lay, who married Mary Thomas Lay in 1856, following the death of his first wife.
The murdered Confederate soldier was never identified. He is buried in a grave along Rock House Road that is marked only by fieldstone.
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It seems that the feelings of the Rock House murderers weren’t shared by a majority of Scott Countians — or, if they were, time quickly eased the tensions, because several of the community’s Confederate soldiers managed to do well for themselves in Scott County after the war.
Of the Confederates who took up residence in Scott County after the war, there were none more famous than a couple of former guerrillas from west of the Mississippi River who were every bit as ruthless as Cumberlands terrorizer Champ Ferguson had been.
Those former guerrillas were, of course, Jesse James, the renowned bank and train robber and leader of the James-Younger Gang, and his brother, Frank. Both of Scott County’s most prominent historians — H. Clay Smith and Esther Sharp Sanderson — wrote of the James brothers’ visit to the area, yet still relatively little is known about exactly what James’ business was in Scott County.
Smith told it like this, relating a story told to him by Huntsville native James W. Baker:
“They came to Huntsville about two years after the Civil War; four strangers rode into the county seat town of Huntsville, Tennessee. They boarded at the Sharp Hotel on the southeast corner of the Court Square and told people they were buyers and traders of livestock.”
The four men were Jesse, Frank, and two members of their band. According to recorded history, the men rented a building next-door to the hotel, which was owned by Billy Sharp, a colorful character known around Huntsville as “Uncle Billy,” and operated a general store.
Over the next several months, the James brothers and their companions operated the store, taking care of their financial obligations with gold or silver coin and riding in and out of town to locate livestock — cattle, hogs, horses and sheep — that could be purchased and driven to market the following summer.
And then, after six months, they simply closed up the shop and rode off. There was no notice; the four men left as quickly as they had arrived.
If you’re wondering why Scott County, so strongly opposed to secession and the Confederacy, would have welcomed renowned Confederates with open arms, the easiest way to explain it is that Scott Countians simply had no idea who these mysterious men were — at least not at the time.
It’s possible, though, that the James brothers had already begun their life of crime when they rode into Huntsville for the first time in 1867. As post-Civil War violence raged in the brothers’ home state of Missouri, crime took root. Among the bank robberies that took place by ex-Confederate secessionists, there were two that stood out: On February 13, 1866, the first daylight armed bank robbery in the United States during peacetime occurred in Liberty, Missouri. The bank, Clay County Savings Association, was owned by Republican former militia officers, and was robbed by bushwhackers with whom Jesse James had been affiliated with as a teenager during the war.
It is unknown whether Jesse or Frank James participated in that robbery. As they became renowned through their involvement in later bank robberies, they were retroactively credited with the Liberty robbery, but it was never conclusively proven.
The second bank robbery was on May 23, 1867, when the gang with which the James brothers were associated robbed a bank in Richmond, Missouri, killing the town’s mayor and two others in the process. Again, it isn’t clear whether Jesse and Frank James took part in the robbery, but an eyewitness told a newspaper that he recognized the brothers among the robbers.
The James brothers were outlaws by the time they arrived in Scott County, of course; their involvement in guerrilla warfare during the Civil War had made them so. In fact, the brothers’ parents and sister were forced by Union troops to leave Clay County, MIssouri and migrate to Nebraska as a result of the brothers’ activities.
Still, their exploits had not captured the imagination of the nation, and would not until they began to be associated with bank robberies and train robberies several years later.
While it isn’t completely clear that the brothers were involved in any bank robberies prior to their stay in Huntsville, they were conclusively tied to a bank robbery in Russellville, Kentucky, near the Tennessee-Kentucky state line, in 1868. That would have likely been after they departed Huntsville for good.
It was in 1869, just about three weeks before Christmas, that Jesse James the outlaw began to gain notoriety. He and Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. And while they didn’t get much money from the robbery, James shot and killed a cashier, mistakenly believing him to be the U.S. Army captain who had shot and killed his former guerrilla commander, “Bloody Bill” Anderson, during the war.
The James brothers managed to elude a posse and escape from Gallatin, but they were officially outlaws. Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden set a reward for Jesse James’ capture.
In the moths that followed the Gallatin robbery, a pro-Confederate newspaper, the Kansas City Times, began publishing letters from James in which he asserted his innocence and railed against Republican leadership in Missouri, while expressing pride in those who remained loyal to the Confederate cause. With the newspaper’s influence, James became the symbol of resistance to the Republican-led Reconstruction efforts, and a way for the defiant former Confederates to rally their cause. He was fast becoming a Southern hero.
It was about the same time that the James-Younger game was founded, with the James brothers joining brothers Cole, John, Jim and Bob Younger, along with other Confederates. Together, they robbed banks in Iowa, Texas, Kansas, West Virginia, and many states in between. They also robbed stagecoaches, and even a fair. They would carry out their robberies daringly, in broad daylight and in front of crowds of people, even taking time to ham it up for bystanders.
The James brothers’ first train robbery was carried out in July 1873, when a train was derailed along the Rock Island railroad line near Adair, Ia. A total of $3,000 — or about $61,000 in modern worth — was stolen. The gang wore Ku Klux Klan masks as they carried out the robbery.
Although the James brothers — particularly Frank — had been connected to savagery during the Civil War, there was a humanitarian touch to their train robberies. They held up passengers only twice, otherwise choosing to take the contents of the train’s safe. With the Kansas City newspaper highlighting these details, Jesse James began to earn a reputation as a 19th century Robin Hood.
Public sentiment towards Jesse James grew more favorable in 1875, when the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which had been hired by the railroad to stop the James-Younger Gang, raided the James family farm in Missouri, burning the residence and killing James’ younger half-brother, Archie. A bill was introduced in the Missouri state legislature to praise the James brothers and offer them amnesty. It was defeated, but only narrowly.
In September 1876, the James-Younger Gang met its demise in Northfield, Minnesota, when a bank robbery went terribly wrong. Two members of the gang were killed by townspeople who — unlike the residents of Missouri — were not sympathetic towards the James brothers. The Younger brothers were all captured in a subsequent gunfight. Only the James brothers escaped.
Jesse and Frank James moved to Nashville after that, going by the names of Thomas Howard and B.J. Woodson. But Jesse James couldn’t completely give up his life of crime. And, three years later, he began to recruit a new gang. He robbed a train in Glendale, Missouri. Other crimes followed.
Eventually, though, the James brothers decided it was time to settle down for good. They moved back to Missouri, then Frank left for Virginia, where he thought he would be safer.
On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was shot dead inside his Missouri home by Bob Ford. Ford, who was at the residence with his brother, Charley, shot James in the back of the head as James stood on a chair to clean a dusty picture.
The Ford brothers wired the governor to claim Bob’s reward, but the two were arrested instead and charged with first-degree murder. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to death by hanging, but were pardoned by the governor. That fueled public sentiment for Jesse James, creating suspicion that the government had conspired with a private citizen to kill the outlaw. Ten years later, Ford was shot in the throat and killed. His killer was sentenced to life in prison, but the sentence was commuted after more than 7,000 people signed a petition demanding his release.
Years later, long after his brother had been killed, Frank James visited the Kentucky town of Hustonville, located along modern-day U.S. Hwy. 127 just north of Somerset. There, he visited with the Weatherford family, who were merchants in town. As related by Smith in his book, “Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past,” when the Weatherfords told Frank James that their business partner was James F. Baker in Huntsville, Tennessee, James told them that he was well acquainted with the town, and that “he and Jesse had stayed in Huntsville several months under assumed names while ‘scouting’ or ‘laying low’ from officers of the law. He described the town and several persons whom he remembered well. Two of them were Uncle Billy Sharp and Rube Hurtt.”
It is likely that a Scott County man was a part of the James gang. Mitt Adkins, alias Clell Miller, is believed to have been killed during one of the bank robberies in Missouri.
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Had Scott Countians known who the Huntsville storekeepers who set up shop next to the Sharp Hotel really were, Jesse and Frank James likely would not have been welcomed. There was that pesky anti-Confederate sentiment, and while it’s true that several Confederate veterans and Rebel sympathizers did well for themselves in Scott County after the war, the detest for secession continued to run strong.
On August 15, 1866 — 16 months after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox — a Scott County grand jury indicted a dead man for treason.
That man was Capt. James Gibson, who, along with his brother, Capt. Henry Gibson, had established the Scott County Rangers — a Confederate regiment — early in the war.
James Gibson had died in 1862, before the war was half over. Unfortunately, very little is known about him — including how he died. But he was apparently well-known at the time, and prosecutors convened the grand jury to consider a rare posthumous indictment.
The grand jury charged that Gibson “not having the fear of God in his heart and being moved and seduced by the investigation of the devil wickedly and Traitorously devising intending the peace and Tranquility of the said State to destruct and to stir move and Excite insurrection Rebellion and war against the said State of Tennessee…”
The indictment placed the traitorous activities of Gibson as June 8, 1861 — the day that Tennesseans voted to secede from the Union.
The grand jury charged that Gibson and 30 men armed themselves “in a warlike manner that is to say with guns, pistols, swords and other warlike weapons…”
The indictment also alleged that the Rebels gathered a large amount of supplies, including: 50 horses, saddles and bridles, 100 guns, 100 pistols, 200 pounds of powder, 200 pounds of lead, 4,000 percussion caps, 50 swords, 50 head of beef cattle, 10,000 pounds of bacon, 1,000 bushels of corn, 10,000 pounds of cornmeal, and 10,000 pounds of flour.
The indictment was brought by attorney general Samuel L. Childress. Members of the grand jury included J.G. Stephens, William Goad, Josiah M. Smith, Martin Terry, Jacob Smithers, James Ellis, John Jeffers, William Jefferies, Hamilton Brown, H.C. Redmon, William Cooper, Jeremiah Phillips and Dempsey Taylor.
Perhaps the most interesting name on that list was Redmon, who was a slave-owner prior to the start of the war.
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Gradually, the hatred of secessionists and the failed rebellion against the United States died away in Scott County, and the lasting sentiment towards the Confederacy became one of indifference, if not sympathy. Today, the Confederate flag flies more freely and frequently in Scott County than it ever did during the war.
The last slave living in Scott County was Nathaniel Hancock, known as “Uncle Nat” by the townsfolk in Huntsville, where Hancock was a popular figure until his death in 1917.
Hancock had been owned John “Jackey” Potter Sr. when the war began. After the war, he and his wife, Betsy, had six children and made Huntsville their home. The historian Esther Sharp Sanderson wrote, “Uncle Nat was a congenial old man. The white folks played checkers with him in the stores and enjoyed his whimsical and funny ways.”
Historian H. Clay Smith also wrote about Hancock, and said that the former slave and Huntsville postmaster Melvin McDOnald would play checkers all day while other townsfolk watched.
On the eve of secession, then-U.S. Senator Andrew Johnson visited Huntsville to urge Scott Countians to remain loyal to the Union — which they did, in overwhelming numbers.
In 1872, Johnson returned to Huntsville as the former President of the United States, and delivered one of the final speeches of his career. As he spoke, according to Smith, he looked into the face of Hancock and read from a poster: “I will keep at all times a good stock of negroes and all from selected stock consisting of field hands, blacksmiths, drivers of stock, and generally any type of help wanted. Also a good grade of trusted mammies and young and old seasoned cooks, seamstresses and granny women.”
Johnson then said, “Mr. Hancock, you will never know the dread of such notices again.”